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Author's Introduction
Over twenty-five years have passed since the publication of my book The Manipulated Man - a
pamphlet written in great anger against the women's movement's worldwide monopoly of opinion.
The determination with which those women portrayed us as victims of men not only seemed
humiliating but also unrealistic. If someone should want to change the destiny of our sex - a wish I
had then as I have today - then that someone should attempt to do so with more honesty. And
possibly also with a little humour. I would like to take the opportunity presented by the re-issue of
my book to answer two questions which I am asked again and again in this context.
People often ask me if I would write this book again. Well, I find it right and proper to have done
so. But seen from today's perspective, my courage in those days may only be attributable to a
lack of imagination. Despite all I wrote, I could not really imagine the power I was up against. It
seemed that one is only allowed to criticise women on the quiet - especially as a woman - and
could only expect agreement behind closed doors.
As we women have, thanks to our relatively stress-free life, a higher life-expectancy than men and
consequently make up the majority of voters in Western industrial nations, no politician could
afford to offend us. And the media is not interested in discussing the issues involved either. Their
products are financed through the advertising of consumer goods, and should we women decide
to stop reading a certain newspaper or magazine as its editorial policy displeases us, then the
advertisements targeted at us also disappear.
After all, it is well established that women make the majority of purchasing decisions. However, I
had also underestimated men's fear of re-evaluating their position. Yet the more sovereignty they
are losing in their professional lives - the more automatic their work, the more controlled by
computers they become, the more that increasing unemployment forces them to adopt
obsequious behaviour towards customers and superiors - then the more they have to be afraid of
a recognition of their predicament. And the more essential it becomes to maintain their illusion
that it is not they who are the slaves but those on whose behalf they subject themselves to such
an existence.
As absurd as it may sound, today's men need feminism much more than their wives do. Feminists
are the last ones who still describe men the way they like to see themselves: as egocentric,
power-obsessed, ruthless and without inhibitions when it comes to satisfying their instincts.
Therefore the most aggressive Women's Libbers find themselves in the strange predicament of
doing more to maintain the status quo than anyone else. Without arrogant accusations, the macho
man would no longer exist, except perhaps in the movies. If the press stylise men as rapacious
wolves, the actual sacrificial lambs of this "men's society", men themselves, would no longer
flock to the factories so obediently.
So I hadn't imagined broadly enough the isolation I would find myself in after writing this book.
Nor had I envisaged the consequences which it would have for subsequent writing and even for
my private life - violent threats have not ceased to this date. A woman who defended the arch-
enemy - who didn't equate domestic life with solitary confinement and who described the
company of young children as a pleasure, not a burden - necessarily had to become a
"misogynist", even a "reactionary" and "fascist" in the eyes of the public.
Had not Karl Marx determined once and for all that in an industrial society it is us, the women,
who are the most oppressed? It goes without saying, doesn't it, that someone who did not want to
take part in the canonisation of her own sex is also opposed to equal wages and equal
opportunities? In other words, if I had known then what I know today, I probably wouldn't have
written this book. And that is precisely the reason why I am so glad to have written it. I would like
to take this opportunity to thank the handful of people who have stood up for me and my work.
Typically, most of them were women.
The second question I am often asked is about the topicality of the opinions I expressed then. To
what extend is what I described over twenty-five years ago still relevant to the "new woman" and
the "new man"?
Here is a list of issues which I recognised in the original book to be men's most significant
disadvantages compared to women.
1. Men are conscripted; women are not.
2. Men are sent to fight in wars; women are not.
3. Men retire later than women (even though, due to their lower life-expectancy, they should have
the right to retire earlier).
4. Men have almost no influence over their reproduction (for males, there is neither a pill nor
abortion - they can only get the children women want them to have).
5. Men support women; women never, or only temporarily, support men.
6. Men work all their lives; women work only temporarily or not at all.
7. Even though men work all their lives, and women work only temporarily or not at all, on
average, men are poorer than women.
8. Men only "borrow" their children; woman can keep them (as men work all their lives and women
do not, men are automatically robbed of their children in cases of separation - with the reasoning
that they have to work).
As one can see, if anything, the female position of power has only consolidated. Today a career in
the military is also open to women in many countries - but without conscription for all.
Many achieved for themselves the right to practice their job for the same number of years as their
male colleagues - however, the retirement age was not increased for all of us. And now as before,
it does not occur to the underprivileged to fight against this grotesque state of affairs. Only as far
as the sixth point is concerned, has there been a significant change. In the more entertaining
spheres of work, there are more and more women who happily and willingly work and still keep
their jobs despite having the children they nevertheless desire. But only a few of these women
would be prepared to offer a life of comfort not only to their children but also the children's
fathers, supported by their often substantial salaries; and fewer would further be prepared, in
case of a separation, to give up their home and offspring and support the next admirer with what
is left of her income.
Also, men would not like it: emancipation may be fine, but to be "kept" by a woman is still not
acceptable - housekeeping and raising children is not worthy of a "real" man. Sadly, women's
manipulation of men is as topical today in the UK as it was back then, but so are the measures
which could be used to end it - to the benefit of both sexes.
In the meantime, however, there are already a few feminists who are talking also about men as
human beings, so the continuation of this discussion may not have to be conducted quite so
loudly.
Esther Vilar, August 1998
And now here's ...
Chapter One
The Slave's Happiness
The lemon-coloured MG skids across the road and the woman driver brings it to a somewhat
uncertain halt. She gets out and finds her left front tyre flat. Without wasting a moment she
prepares to fix it: she looks towards the passing cars as if expecting someone. Recognising this
standard international sign of woman in distress ("weak female let down my by male technology"),
a station wagon draws up. The driver sees what is wrong at a glance and says comfortingly,
"Don't worry. We'll fix that in a jiffy."
To prove his determination, he asks for her jack. He does not ask if she is capable of changing the
tyre herself because he knows - she is about thirty, smartly dressed and made-up - that she is
not.
Since she cannot find a jack, he fetches his own, together with his other tools. Five minutes later
the job is done and the punctured tyre properly stowed. His hands are covered with grease. She
offers him an embroidered handkerchief, which he politely refuses. He has a rag for such
occasions in his tool box.
The woman thanks him profusely, apologising for her "typically feminine" helplessness. She
might have been there till dusk, she says, had he not stopped. He makes no reply and, as she gets
back into the car, gallantly shuts the door for her. Through the wound-down window he advises
her to have her tyre patched at once and she promises to get her petrol station attendant to see to
it that very evening. Then she drives off.
As the man collects his tools and goes back to his own car, he wishes he could wash his hands.
His shoes - he has been standing in the mud while changing the tyre - are not as clean as they
should be (he is a salesman). What is more he will have to hurry to keep his next appointment. As
he starts the engine he thinks, "Women! One's more stupid than the next". He wonders what she
would have done if he had not been there to help. He puts his foot on the accelerator and drives
off - faster than usual. There is the delay to make up. After a while he starts to hum to himself.
In a way, he is happy.
Almost any man would have behaved in the same way - and so would most women. Without
thinking, simply because men are men and women are so different from them, a woman will make
use of a man whenever there is the opportunity. What else could the woman have done when her
car broke down? She has been taught to get a man help. Thanks to his knowledge, he was able to
change the tyre quickly - and at no cost to herself. True, he ruined his clothes, put his business in
jeopardy and endangered his own life by driving too fast afterwards. Had he found something else
wrong with her car, however, he would have repaired that, too. That is what his knowledge of cars
is for! Why should a woman learn to change a flat tyre when the opposite sex (half the world's
population) is able and willing to do it for her?
Women let men work for them, think for them and take on their responsibilities - in fact, they
exploit them.
Since men are strong, intelligent and imaginative, while women are weak, unimaginative and
stupid, why isn't it men who exploit women?
Could it be that strength, intelligence and imagination are not prerequisites for power but merely
qualifications for slavery?
Could it be that the world is not being ruled by experts but by beings who are not fit for anything
else - by women?
And if this is so, how do women manage it so that their victims do not feel themselves cheated
and humiliated, but rather believe to be themselves what they are least of all - masters of the
universe?
How do women manage to instill in men this sense of pride and superiority that inspires them to
ever greater achievements?
Why are women never unmasked?